If Democrats Get Their Way, You Could Work Without Pay For 8 ½ Months

Now, don’t get me wrong. My heart goes out to government employees and their families who aren’t being paid because politicians can’t get their acts together.

But let’s be honest here — or at least consistent. While they express horror that government workers may miss a paycheck or two, liberal Democrats are not the least concerned about forcing certain taxpayers to work for as long as 8 ½ months without pay EVERY year.

Newly minted Congresswoman and proud member of the Democrat Socialist Party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has recently proposed that America’s top income earners pay 70% of their income in taxes. She proposes this “windfall” should then be used to fund green energy programs — an initiative that already receives billions of dollars in tax subsidies.

In the category of goose and gander, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and the Democrats who agree with her should explain why it’s ok for some taxpayers to work 8 ½ months for free, but not OK for government workers to miss a paycheck.

It’s hypocrisy pure and simple.

Another hypocrisy is that she’s proposed the same tax increase will also pay for other big-government proposals … medicare for all … guaranteed annual income … free college … massive housing subsidies. In fact, she’s spent the same nickel so many times you’d think she’s minting them in her basement.

But even if she had some magical source of funds to pay for all her other proposals, Ocasio-Cortez’s math doesn’t add up. She points to Ike’s Administration (Republican) and claims that back then wealthy taxpayers paid 70% on their income.

She’s correct that was the highest tax rate, but she’s wrong to suggest anyone actually paid that. She doesn’t consider the tons of deductions available to the wealthy back then. She doesn’t consider the massive amount they spent hiring attorneys, lobbyists, and accountants to maximize those deductions. And she doesn’t understand that 91% of Americans back then paid taxes as opposed to the only 50% or so who pay taxes today.

She also doesn’t realize the massive hit those high taxes took on our economy. So high, in fact, that President Kennedy (a Democrat) made drastic tax cuts for all Americans. As a result the economy took off and despite lower tax rates, revenues to the government increased. Oops.

Ocasio-Cortez either doesn’t know, or doesn’t want you to know that 80% of all taxes today come from the top 10% of income earners. And as I mentioned, she makes no mention of the fact that 50% of Americans today pay nothing in taxes — ZERO. Just think about that. 50% of our population pays no income taxes (but that’s a subject for another blog). And she makes no mention of the huge amount we spend on illegal immigration; a net cost to taxpayers of well over $100 billion each year.

Being a Socialist, Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t believe people have the right to the results of their own labor. She fundamentally believes that the government is entitled to the money we earn for whatever pet projects they care to fund at our expense.

I remember years ago listening to a debate in the California Senate in which a State Senator lecturing his fellow Senators on the benefits of higher taxes said, ’look at how much of their own pay checks we allow them to keep.” Can you imagine? But this is exactly how Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and her like-minded friends think. “What’s your’s is mine, and it’s perfectly legitimate that we use the legal force of government to take it from you.”

And keep in mind, Ocasio-Cortez is just the most recent arrival at this party. Bernie Sanders, another self-avowed socialist and likely presidential candidate, is also a true believer. Senator Warren who recently announced her campaign for president advocates tax rates of 70% or more as well.

So far, there’s at least 20 different Democrats who have talked about potentially running for president in 2020. Every one of them have suggested rolling back the Trump tax cuts. For most of them, that roll-back is just a down payment on huge new tax increases. They all have proposed massive new spending on various social programs — more benefits for illegal immigrants, greater government control of health care, free college for some or all, and more. In fact, you can expect the Democrat primary to look a lot like an auction with each candidate outbidding one another — but with our money!

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has become the darling of the media and the face of the Democratic Party. Both will do all they can to push and promote her socialist agenda. It should make all of us tremble who pay taxes or care about protecting the only economic system that has raised literally billions of people worldwide from poverty and want.

Why? Because those who know the least about our civics, our Republic, and our history are quickly taking the reigns of our economy. And the truth is that they have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. That should make all of us afraid, very afraid.